St. Lawrence University in the World War, 1917-1918: A Memorial

St. Lawrence University in the World War, 1917-1918: A Memorial

Excerpt

In the age-old struggle for democracy, "for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government," the van in the forward movement is always led by university men. If it was on the football fields of Eton that Waterloo was won, if it was the Burschenschaft at Jena that, in 1817, fanned the German people into a fever heat of patriotic liberalism, then historians of the future will not fail to note how the colleges of America, following Harvard's leadership in the Plattsburgh movement, were the first, in 1917, to respond to the President's call when Woodrow Wilson finally accepted the Hohenzollern's submarine challenge.

St. Lawrence, in this outpouring of America's youth to vindicate the principles of peace, justice, and righteousness, was prompt to conform to her traditions and to do her part. To make her role of record and to perpetuate the memories of her sacred war dead is the purose of this book.

The stories of the Laurentians who saw service are related here, as far as possible, in their own contemporary words. But the epic note of their accounts will be wholly missed if the reader overlooks the unanimity of their optimism, of their sportsmanship, in their sacrifice for the maintenance of American ideals. The ring of sincerity in all of them shows how general among our people, old and young, was the sense of service for the nation's good. It is believed that their lives are a fair cross-section of the whole.

To the many people who have helped to make this book, the editor is grateful. An inestimable privilege has been his -- that of coming into close personal touch with the surviving parents and relatives of the men who died in the service.

The thanks of the University are due to the contributors who have devoted their time and strength to writing the chapters signed by them . . .